MnDOT Innovation Awards
What began as a vision in our Innovation Strategy—that everyone at MnDOT is an innovator—has become reality, with MnOVATORs across the agency bringing that vision to life each day. The MnDOT Innovation Awards celebrate creativity, collaboration, and forward thinking by honoring employees across the agency who are innovating and advancing MnDOT’s goals of safety, sustainability, equity, and efficiency. Through nominations, employee voting, and award recognition, this program provides an opportunity to share the creative ideas our teams turn into real improvements in the transportation field. Nominations and awards recognize and highlight the creative ideas that become real improvements in the transportation field.
The Awards
- Innovation of the Year - Recognizes innovations that have a profound impact and significantly advances safety, reduces costs, advances equity, champions sustainability, and/or improves public service.
- Spark Award - Recognizes creativity in developing novel processes, tools, or technologies to solve problems and make improvements. This award recognizes smaller, incremental innovations; these innovations may not have as large an impact as the Innovation of the Year, but they exemplify the innovative spirit and are essential to fostering and sustaining an innovative culture!
- Upgrade Award - Honors ingenuity, adoption, adaptation, and/or resourceful problem-solving using available resources. This award affirms that we do not have to reinvent the wheel and that taking someone else's idea to the next level can be just as valuable.
- Flow Award - Recognizes the implementation of a new or redesigned process that achieves excellent results. Continually improving the way we plan, prepare, execute, revise, and rethink our work to enhance performance.
- People’s Choice - Team MnDOT’s favorite innovation of the year!
The Winners
Congratulations to the teams who worked on the 30 innovations that were submitted to MnDOT’s 2025 Innovation Campaign and Awards. Go to Nominees for a complete list. Watch recordings of the MnDOT 2025 Innovation Awards Showcase and a special Innovation Hour webinar featuring this year’s winners to learn more about the nominees, the winning ideas, the problems they set out to solve, and what it took to bring their innovations to life.
Spark Award
The Use of 3-D Printer to Make Custom Parts for Traffic Signals and ITS
Team: Ron Christopherson, Tom Christopherson, Linda Heath
Office of Transportation System Management & Operations
- Problem: Lack of standardized, protective components for traffic signal cabinets.
- Solution: Used 3D printing to create custom parts like surge suppressor caps and slot covers.
- Impact: Improved cabinet maintenance, troubleshooting, and component protection.
Upgrade Award
Project Building: Pedestrian Bridges in Multiple Districts
Team: Peter Davich, Luke Johanneck, Paul Johns
Office of Construction & Innovative Contracting
- Problem: Lack of project managers and delays in pedestrian bridge improvements.
- Solution: Used design-build and bundled contracts with a central manager.
- Impact: Delivered four bridge improvements across three districts with better resource use.
Flow Award
Blatnik Bridge Permitting Process
Team: Pat Huston, John Krysiak, & Matt Meyer
District 1
- Problem: Permitting delays due to lack of coordination between state and federal agencies.
- Solution: Created a technical working group for early, consistent collaboration.
- Impact: Permits approved on first submittal, saving up to $70M per year in delays and enabling environmentally sustainable solutions.
Innovation of the Year
Enhanced Pavement Striping – Increased Life and visibility
Team: Mitch Bartelt, Ken Johnson, Michelle Moser, Ethan Peterson
Office of Traffic Engineering
- Problem: Pavement striping was hard to see in wet-night conditions.
- Solution: Adopted wet-reflective media and set new retroreflectivity standards.
- Impact: Improved visibility, safety, and striping longevity in all weather conditions.
People’s Choice Award (Team MnDOT’s Favorite)
Controlled Modulus Columns – The Soft Soil Solution
Team: Adam Ahrndt, Kelly Brunkhorst, Rich Lamb, Alan Setrum
District 8
- Problem: Traditional pile driving was slow and environmentally unfriendly.
- Solution: Used Controlled Modulus Columns (CMCs) with local materials.
- Impact: Saved $1.4M and reduced installation time from three months to three weeks.